


Til Kingdom Come

by ViciousRhythm



Series: Reylo trope coverage [6]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Fluff, Married Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-17 10:03:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5864974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViciousRhythm/pseuds/ViciousRhythm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Medieval royalty AU, with the part of the princess played by Rey, the part of her loyal knights by Poe and Finn, and the part of the disgraced prince by Kylo Ren.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my friend maddlyn, who is tirelessly into my writing and looked over this for mistakes, because she is excellent and I am tired.

“Your Highness? Are you alright?”

Rey jolts out of her thoughts at the sound of Poe’s voice so nearby. He’s looking at her with a wrinkle of concern between his eyes, and Rey becomes aware of the way she’s gripping the cushion on either side of her skirt. She hadn’t meant to crush the fabric between her fingers quite so hard, but watching Finn fight has never been a favorite activity, and it brings out anxiety every time he enters a tournament. Now is no exception.

“Just fine, Sir,” she says, releasing the poor cushion. “It’s only that I wish our friend would exercise more caution.”

Poe grins at her, though she would call it closer to a grimace.

“We both know he has something to prove, Ma’am.” He tips his head toward Finn where their friend is defending himself well, though they can both see the struggle. “I’m afraid the sting of rejection doesn’t ease in such short a time.”

Finn had once again been refused a position on the guard this spring, and Poe and Rey both knew he took it hard. It was a feat that he had retained his knighthood at all, having receiving his original accolade from the man who had tried to overtake Rey’s kingdom. Through the good faith of Queen Leia, Finn’s oath was taken and he was a knight of the realm, but the captain of the guard was not so easily swayed to accept Finn’s unwavering loyalty. His friendship with the princess had done nothing to sway Jessika’s opinion either.

And so Finn had entered the tournament, his friends felt, mostly out of frustration and the need to prove himself. It’s a useless endeavor, as Rey can see Jessika’s unmoved face even from this distance, but Finn would not be dissuaded.

“Well hasn’t he proven it yet?” Rey asks impatiently. “He’s just as good as any of the guard, and what does it matter if he’s given patrols. He spends half of yours with you anyway.”

“It’s a matter of male pride, Highness,” Poe says wryly. “I fear I couldn’t explain it to you if I tried.”

“I’m sure I would only tell you it’s rubbish anyway,” Rey sighs.

They watch Finn snatch a victory out from under his opponent, his face both joyful and sweaty when his visor is lifted. Rey feels Poe shift beside her and rolls her eyes to look at him fully.

“Go talk to him.” Poe makes a face like he’s about to protest, so Rey speaks over him. “He’ll want to regale you with the details of the fight, and should someone feel the need to attack me here in the open, surrounded by my people, I think I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Don’t even joke about it, Highness,” Poe says sternly, but he does listen to her, tapping another guard that Rey doesn’t know quite so well to take his watch.

Rey can see Poe jogging to the tents at the edge of the field, greeting Finn with congratulations, and wishes not for the first time that she didn’t have to sit here in her shaded box for the entirety of the tournament. She does enjoy watching the matching of skill, but Rey has never been one for sitting around for very long. If she had her way, Rey might even join the knights on the field, but there would be an uproar if such a thing were to ever happen, so she contents herself with her lessons from Finn and Poe and Jessika.

Two rounds later, they’ve reached the final bout of the tournament and Rey has the dubious honor of announcing the match.

“Thank you,” she starts, projecting over the muttering of the crowd, “for your service and for your demonstrations today. It is now my pleasure to welcome our last combatants. Sir Poe Dameron will be matched against Sir Kylo Ren. May you both display honor and strength.”

The last sentence is her own addition, in the hopes she can shame the foreign knight into good behavior. She doesn’t hold out hope for a fair fight, but Poe is one of the most skilled knights in the realm, and Rey does feel some cheer at the prospect of him putting Kylo Ren on his back.

The man in question takes to the field with long, domineering strides, dressed in full black armor and carrying a massive sword to match his height. Even if she didn’t already know his story, Rey would dislike him. He is much more distasteful than even his appearance suggests, however. The estranged and disowned son of Queen Leia and King Han, Kylo Ren was once known among his people as Prince Ben, heir to the throne. His betrayal had broken his parents’ hearts, but not their determination.

In the fight against the First Order and Snoke, Kylo Ren took up arms against his own people, and there are rumors his was the blow that killed King Han, though no one has been able to confirm it. It was also his desertion of Snoke that led to the tyrant’s downfall, and though Rey can never forgive Kylo Ren’s part in all of it, the Queen had pardoned him of all war crimes before the end of the war. Still, this is the first time since their return to peace that Kylo Ren has done anything more than skulk about the barracks, and it’s meant to return him to his place somewhat.

He will never again be Ben Solo, and will never have a claim to the throne without starting another war, but the Queen has hopes for her son to regain some of his honor at the least. Rey is not so optimistic.

Despite her reservations, Rey is equally pleased and disappointed to find that Kylo Ren fights with honor and strength aplenty. He is certainly skilled, as he neatly forces Poe to the defensive, but is neither cruel nor unfair in his attacks. Over the progress of the competition, Rey watches Poe put up a good fight, but ultimately he is bested. The match ends with Poe having taken a knee, and Rey can see his shoulders heaving from where she sits. Kylo Ren, on the other hand, looks like he’s hardly exerted himself, and it is with the strongest sense of displeasure that she must give him the victory.

-

When Rey was all of fourteen, amidst the war to keep the First Order from usurping her kingdom, she met the King under the least likely of circumstances. She had always heard he was a man of the people, but Rey had never expected to meet her sovereign in a backwater town like Jakku. She herself was no more than a maid working in Unkar Plutt’s tavern, grown thin from hunger and strong from the fight against it. It was King Han’s table that stood nearest her when she stopped a pair of local boys from harassing the barn cat, Bebe, with a generous application of her broom handle.

The king, unknown to her then, had congratulated her bravery with a smile, and asked how such a small thing learned to put up such a strong fight.

“It’s the smallest that must fight the hardest, sir,” she’d told him. “And know when to stand for those too small yet to learn how.”

Her answer had pleased the man, and he’d asked after her to Unkar Plutt, learning that she was an orphan under his care, and nothing to be called special, by Plutt’s judgment. Han had purchased her service, claiming to need an attendant for himself and his travelling companion, a burly, hairy fellow who had made Rey smile with his jokes during their stay at the tavern. Plutt had gladly parted with her for the sum Han offered, probably thinking and not caring that she was destined for something far less pleasant than work as an attendant for two travellers.

It was only upon arrival at the castle that Rey had been introduced to Han as “His Majesty the King”. She remembers how she’d nearly fallen in her rush to curtsey and apologize for her candor while she had been unaware of his true identity. Han had brushed off the apologies and formality and brought Rey to meet his wife, the Queen. They had both taken an instant liking to her, to Rey’s amazement.

A year later, she had found herself being adopted into the family, given a title as heir and her own guard, complete with a squire named Poe Dameron. She had learned of the former Prince’s betrayal and grown up baffled as to how the boy could have deserted such wonderful parents and abandoned his duty as heir. Though she was not born to it, Rey accepted the family and duty she found, and in time, she was beloved by her people.

News of the King’s death had reached Leia and Rey shortly after her eighteenth birthday, and the castle had become a gloomy place for months. Finn, the soldier who had brought the news, was a defector from the First Order and Rey distrusted him for the greater portion of a month before his open face and earnest demeanor won her over. His deep regret over his part in the war leant a hand in her finding a friendship with him, as did his quick and easy rapport with Poe. Finn was given a knighthood shortly before news of Kylo Ren’s betrayal of Snoke came to them.

Rey had never seen the Queen so torn as when she heard her son had turned against Snoke and his Order. She had known the Queen missed her son deeply, and that the wound left behind by his betrayal had never healed, but then Rey had never expected it to. She had never thought the day might come when the former Ben Solo would turn up on the steps of the Queen’s audience hall, tattered and torn himself.

He’d been a sorry sight that day and in the weeks following, and Rey suspects that was part of what drove Leia to forgive the man so quickly. Bloody and worn, he’d been a pitiful sight, made more so by the way he very nearly crumbled at the touch of his mother’s hand to his cheek. Rey had been unable to stomach their reunion, excusing herself quietly from the room as mother and son embraced. Perhaps Queen Leia could forgive her son, but Rey was not about to do so easily or quickly.

In the wake of his participation in the tournament, Kylo becomes a more usual presence in court, to Rey’s severe annoyance. His display of skill and integrity has earned him the begrudging respect of the guard, though he is never left to his own devices for more than a few hours. He comes and goes like some hybrid of many things in the castle, at times a knight or a noble or simply a man hurrying along the corridors to be out of sight.

Occasionally, he takes meals with the royal family, though he will never be welcomed back into his former position there. Quiet and respectful, Kylo is almost a presence Rey could ignore if she were not so thoroughly disgusted with his existence.

“Do you have a purpose here?” she can’t stop herself from demanding of him when her ire is particularly high one evening. “Or do you intend only to hover about and let your mother dwell on what is lost?”

She’s seen the way the Queen looks at Kylo, like she is at once grateful for his return and deeply wounded by it. Were he simply an enemy, perhaps Leia could let go of the hurts the war had dealt her, but Kylo lingers, a reminder of what she can never regain, never rising to become anything more than the man who used to be her son. If only he would be _useful_ , Rey could understand his continued presence, but as it is, she wishes fervently that he would take to some distant property rather than continue here as a living ghost.

“I do not know what my purpose here is,” he says after a pause long enough that Rey has given up on him. “I know only that my mother wishes me to remain. Beyond that, all that I am given to understand is what I _cannot_ be or do.”

“And how does the idea of becoming a knight errant suit you?” she asks, partially in jest. “I know of a great many injustices in my former home of Jakku alone that could be rectified by the application of a firm hand on behalf of the crown.”

For the duration of their short conversation, neither of them has looked at the other, their voices hushed and eyes trained ahead. At this suggestion, though, Kylo turns to face her and Rey responds automatically to meet his eye. He is not, to her chagrin, cursed to carry the ugliness of his person on his face, despite the scar that trails from between his brows down his left cheek, and Rey wonders for the first time how he acquired it. In this moment of silence and consideration of each other, his eyes burn into hers with an intensity that makes Rey both uncomfortable and unable to retreat from the challenge he offers.

“Then I shall go there,” he says simply, turning back to his meal.

Rey continues staring at him for a moment longer, though his dark eyes have left hers.

“You certainly will not,” she snaps. “What am I to do if you decide not to return? I cannot bear the weight of having sent you away and broken your mother’s heart.”

“She’s your mother now,” he says easily. “And I will return.”

“I’m simply to trust that?” she questions, disbelieving.

He turns to her again briefly, only to say with a conviction that shocks her, “I swear to you I will return.”

-

Kylo Ren leaves with the Queen’s bewildered blessing, meant to be gone for more than a fortnight to see to the list of things Rey has given him. Jakku has never been a place of great repute, and though Rey has not seen the town in years, she can’t imagine things have changed much. There is always some lord or other in the township and the lands nearby who sees no issue with cutting his people’s livelihoods out from under them. There is a strange sort of satisfaction in the knowledge that Rey is commanding their former enemy and the man who would have inherited the kingdom, which will now be hers. There is an even greater satisfaction in knowing he will not be haunting the castle for a while.

She spends the month of his absence in higher spirits than she has been since Kylo Ren’s appearance in the hall. Rey falls back into her practices with Finn and Poe with greater regularity now that she doesn’t stand the risk of seeing Kylo on the training grounds. Luke, her adoptive uncle and tutor, having declined the crown for love of his studies, even comments on her improved focus and mood during her lessons, knowing full well the cause of it. Rey has always been more candid with Luke than with Leia, though she loves the Queen like a mother. There is just something about Leia that shouts regality in a way Luke never has.

“Shall I expect a return to surliness and impatience when my nephew comes back?” Luke asks over a history lesson when they deviate to politics and the wisdom of not letting one’s emotions rule when one stands to command the entire realm.

“Perhaps,” Rey says slowly. “Though I will endeavor to improve. I just don’t see how the Queen can be so trusting that he won’t prove himself disloyal yet again. He has betrayed those he swore an oath to twice already.”

“Should it not be a point in his favor that he committed the second betrayal to counteract the first?” Luke has always been the type to encourage Rey to examine things from all perspectives in the most forgiving manner feasible, but she wishes he would drop the habit when it comes to Kylo. “And isn’t one of your own dear friends guilty of disloyalty to his cause?”

“Finn saw the error of his knowledge and the ruthlessness of the First Order,” Rey argues. “Kylo Ren remained at Snoke’s right hand, committing as many atrocities as any other man in their ranks, and only returned in shambles after years of ignoring his duty to his people.”

“Consider this, my vitriolic pupil,” Luke says with an amused tone that undercuts the slight. “Snoke served as an advisor and tutor to the prince for most of his young life, and was given ample opportunity to poison the boy’s mind. It may only have been the grace of a good soul that led Kylo to finally abandon the false notions that were nurtured in him since childhood.”

Rey hums noncommittally, and Luke thankfully drops the subject to return to their lesson, but Rey thinks on it nonetheless. She realized in a distant sort of way that Snoke had been an advisor to the royal family for many years, but she had never given great thought to the notion of what kind of power that would give such a dark man over the prince. Snoke’s rebellion and war had hinged on the promise that he meant to replace Han and Leia with Kylo Ren when he achieved the victory, but Rey had seen that only as an empty promise, knowing Snoke would seize power for himself if given the chance.

Perhaps Kylo had not known, however. Perhaps Snoke had built a trust that should never have been, so that it took far longer for the man to realize Snoke meant to have Kylo dispatched upon his triumph. Somewhat unwillingly, Rey softens to Kylo in his absence, at least willing to consider that he might have saved himself only in the nick of time and under dire circumstances.

-

Kylo Ren returns before a month is up, looking bedraggled from the late summer rain, but no worse for the wear. Rey is present in the stables when he arrives with his horse in tow, having meant to go for a ride herself before the rain started up. She’s been in the stables for the last hour or so, visiting with her favored horse and passing the time until the rain lets up a bit. She grew up in a rather more dry region of the realm, and has never quite taken to the rain.

Kylo, however, seems entirely unbothered by it, soaked to the bone and going about his business as if it was usual to be so. He nods his acknowledgement of her presence, not quite bowing, and Rey feels a flicker of annoyance. She isn’t one to stand on ceremony, but with him it seems wise to demand he respect her station. She has no idea how to voice her displeasure, in any case, so she lets the matter go.

“You were successful in your endeavors, I trust?” she asks lightly, not looking at him.

“I was.” Kylo continues with his work of unsaddling and brushing down the animal as he speaks, his voice carrying over the space between them. “Jakku is in better condition than it likely has been in decades.”

“You’re awfully confident in yourself for a man who claimed not to know his purpose.”

“I had not yet been shown where I might be of use,” he replies. “But I do remember what it means to be a caretaker for the realm, and I would be pleased to offer my services should you find other corners of this kingdom that need improvement.”

Rey stares at her horse, as if the poor mare will offer any insight, but she fears she is doomed to deal with the curiosity that is Kylo Ren alone. She is certainly the only one who’s managed to move him from his previous determination to be a wallowing mess, so Rey supposes she can only continue on with the challenge of reforming him singlehandedly.

“There are, in fact, a great many places that could benefit from more careful attention,” she says when she makes it to the stall where he stands.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” he says carefully, looking almost as though she’s worried him.

“You’ll hear plenty more of it,” Rey tells him matter of factly. “I intend to discuss the matter with you so that you might know where your service is required. If you would be so kind as to make yourself available tomorrow evening before supper?”

Kylo blinks at her for a moment, frowning lightly.

“Of course, Your Highness,” he says after a beat.

Satisfied, Rey checks the door and finds the rain has lightened to a mist that is manageable for her walk back to her rooms, and leaves him to attend to his business.

-

They go on like this for more than a year, Rey giving him assignments dotted all over the kingdom, and Kylo Ren seeing to it that the petty problems of the people are taken care of. She wouldn’t say she develops any sort of friendship with the man, but there is a sort of understanding. They will never be on good terms like she is with Finn and Poe, but Rey can respect that he is earnest in his desire to help. He is a great many things, but he is effective for her cause and true to his word. When he swears he will return, he always does, and Rey stops fearing she will be the thing that sent him away and destroyed Leia in the process.

The Queen, in the meantime, settles somewhat with her son serving a purpose, and takes control of the kingdom’s return to peace. In the wake of Snoke’s war, there are a great many men to be honored and things to be restored to order. It isn’t until the realm is back to a state of reliable safety that Leia brings up the idea of marriage. Rey had known in a detached way that she would be expected to marry, likely for an alliance, and she has accepted it. That doesn’t make her eager to consider who her options might be, but Rey bears it with as much grace as she can muster.

Her prospects, it turns out, are quite few. The neighboring kingdoms are largely blessed with female heirs, and the handful of males are already promised to one of them. Rey has only been heir for a few years, so her future in matrimony was never factored in to the surrounding royalty from birth as would be usual. And so, Rey’s pool of suitors is widened to include the lesser nobility.

It is an exercise in patience to deal with the mess that comes from every duke or count with a son offering their child up for consideration. Poe is her saving grace, neatly stepping in when he can tell Rey is losing her patience with the parade of men. Every one seems to be either a pandering simpleton or an arrogant fool, and Rey is almost inclined to send Kylo on a mission with the sole purpose of finding out how such bloodlines came to be in charge of any particular scrap of land.

When Rey has to watch Poe escort a frightfully rude and entirely unacceptable man named Hux from the premises, she finds the end of that patience.

“He served as a _general_ under Snoke!” she practically yells at Poe’s impassive but sympathetic face. “How does he even stand to inherit land after that? Let alone have the audacity to fancy himself the future king!”

“I suppose quite a few of the higher ups rode the coattails of Kylo’s return,” Poe says. “If he could come back from working with Snoke, it’s not a stretch to suppose others might have seen the error of their ways.”

Rey glares at him, feeling the oncoming headache grow.

“You tell me that man has genuinely regretted anything in his life, and I will eat the crown.”

“No,” Poe laughs. “I don’t think he has.”

They go to visit Finn in the wake of her disastrous meeting with Hux, and find him petitioning Jessika yet again for a position on the guard. Though she would deny it if asked, Rey knows Jessika is softening to Finn’s pleas, and she expects that when it comes time for Jessika to name a new set of guards to replace those who will retire this year, Finn’s name will be among them.

“It’s no use, Finn,” Poe says, clapping him on the shoulder when they catch up to him. “You know she won’t budge for anybody until it’s a formal announcement anyway.”

Finn sags for a second, but lets it go. Jessika shoots Poe a grateful look and excuses herself to see to her _actual duties, Sir Finn_ , and leaves them to their devices.

“Come have lunch with us,” Rey offers. “You can tell us again how unfair it is that she won’t let you have a midnight watch like the rest of the knights and I can complain to fresh ears about my various suitors.”

“Alright,” Finn agrees with an easy laugh. “But only if you’re in charge of acquiring food. The cooks always give you the best.”

The three friends find their way to a room near the kitchens, Rey begging a meal off the cook, who is more than happy to provide her with one. A gaggle of servants follows her back to Poe and Finn, whose conversation is dropped fast at the appearance of food. They spend the time complaining in good spirits about their shallow problems, ignoring the fact that Rey’s current issue affects the entire kingdom and not just her mood. They’ve finished eating and are simply chatting when Queen Leia comes to fetch her.

“Sir Poe, Sir Finn,” she greets them as she enters, and waves her hand to keep them from standing to bow. “Don’t trouble yourselves, I’ve only come to retrieve Rey. I have an important matter to discuss with her in private.”

Rey excuses herself and follows the Queen to her sitting room, only slightly nervous. She knows her half-hearted search for a husband is somewhat disappointing, but there’s little she can do about it. The court advisors are in charge of offering her options, but Rey refuses to accept a man she cannot rule beside. If she has to search the entire kingdom for an acceptable partner, so be it.

“It has come to my attention,” Leia starts when they’re settled, “that your suitors have been largely underwhelming.”

“Yes,” Rey tells her without hesitation. “It seems the nobility is entirely populated with men who mean to either flatter me to death or use me as a stepping stool to power. And not a one of them with any idea what it means to put in hard work for their people, I’d wager.”

“I agree,” Leia says. “Unfortunately, those who have been willing to meet the full requirements of a good leader have either been too preoccupied until lately to produce heirs, or have failed spectacularly in teaching them what it means to rule well.”

Rey’s anxiety over the matter decreases slightly. If Leia can see that she’s not being unreasonable then Rey is confident they can find a solution together. Leia has always been gifted with a clever mind, and Rey a strong spirit, so that the two women have never met a problem they find unsolvable. However, the next thing that leaves Leia’s mouth has Rey wondering if there is finally something in which she and the Queen will have irreconcilable differences of opinion.

“That’s why I’m suggesting you consider Kylo Ren.”

Rey does not sit there gaping like a fish, but it’s only by the teachings of her court manners tutor that she avoids it.

“You can’t be serious,” she says flatly. “He stood at the right hand of the man who tried for years to destroy this country. If you had any faith in him inheriting the throne, you would have welcomed him back as your rightful heir.”

“I might have,” Leia sighs, “if it wouldn’t have been a huge mistake at the time. I must confess though I was willing to forgive him, I did not know my son when he returned to us. It would have been a grave error to accept him based purely on a mother’s love.”

“However,” she goes on. “In the year since his return, I have learned much about my son. I can see that he is a good man who was once misled to all our detriment, and he has not forgotten what he was taught as a boy.”

Rey can feel her arguments on the tip of her tongue, but Leia is evidently not done singing Kylo Ren’s praises.

“You have been a positive influence on him yourself,” Leia says. “Your work together has been a great help in setting this kingdom to rights. And I know he has learned reliability with you, as well as proven his loyalty and commitment to your cause.”

“He is untethered,” Rey insists. “I only gave him a goal when he had nothing.”

“And that is no small feat,” Leia says, eyebrows raised. “You saw a man who needed direction and gave it to him, with unerring instinct for a task that would motivate him. You may not have intended it, but you have helped him find himself, and I suspect the accomplishment has settled you as well.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that-” Rey starts, only to be cut off by Leia interrupting.

“I know I was not the only one hurt by Han’s death,” Leia says quietly. “And I think you held it against Kylo far more than I did. The anger and resentment you used to carry with you has eased as you two have worked together, and I am not the only one who sees it.”

“Luke,” Rey says with certainty. “Was this his idea?”

“It was a shared notion.” Leia smiles at her, ignoring the turmoil Rey still feels over the mere suggestion of Kylo Ren as a possible spouse and co-ruler. “They do say great minds think alike.”

“But fools rarely disagree,” Rey says, completing the saying.

“Are you calling me a fool?” Leia asks with mock disapproval.

“No, Your Majesty,” Rey replies, her formality just as facetious.

“Consider it,” Leia says after a moment of silence, pleased on Leia’s end and contemplative of Rey’s. “That is all I ask.”

-

The shocking thing is Rey does consider it. She sends Kylo away on a lengthy mission, hoping the distance will give her clarity. He swears to her that he will return, just as he does every time, and Rey thinks, unbidden, _reliable_. She doesn’t tell Finn or Poe of Leia’s suggestion, but she examines what she knows of Kylo Ren in her private time.

He was once a sweet boy, if the tales are to be believed, but there is a void between stories of his youth and the man she knows that Rey cannot fill, and doesn’t wish to. She knows the First Order was ruthless in its actions from Finn’s stories, and that Kylo ordered as many violent acts as he committed, but she must consider that it was a war. Reflecting, she supposes her own people have killed as many as the men Kylo commanded, when it comes down to it.

The man she knows now is quiet above all things. He is respectful to his mother, helpful when the knights and guards ask favors of him. He does not often speak easily with her, but in the few moments she has shared an actual conversation with him, Kylo has shown a keen sense of humor, dark though it is at times. Leia was not wrong in saying he remembers his teaching as a boy, having displayed a tactical mindset when faced with delegating and solving the various issues Rey has tasked him with, and handling himself with grace in court when he deigns to attend.

There is also the matter of why it would be risky _not_ to choose him, should Kylo be her best option and her only objections a weak and nearly forgotten distaste for the man based on rumor. Though he is legally ineligible to inherit the throne on his own merit, he shares Leia and Han’s blood, and could make a try for it if he were willing to bring them back to war. Beloved she may be, but Rey is also adopted, and a marriage to Kylo would legitimize her right to rule in a way the papers cannot. Rey is blessed to inherit a realm well used to true power lying in the hands of their queen, so it stands to reason that Leia’s endorsement of Rey’s superiority would continue the trend, even if Kylo tried to stand against her as her husband. Instinctually, she doesn't believe he would, though she can't place her finger on why she thinks so.

When he returns a month and a half later, Rey has nearly convinced herself she can accept him as a husband, but is entirely unsure if she will be able to enjoy him as a companion. In light of the decision she’s nearly made, Rey endeavors to find out just whether or not she can stand the man for any length of time.

-

“Have I done something wrong?” Kylo asks her over supper.

Rey starts, aware suddenly that she’s been turned slightly toward him all evening, watching.

“It’s only that you haven’t kept this close an eye on me since you thought I might suddenly murder the Queen or something if you let me out of your sight.”

“I never thought that,” Rey insists.

“Yes, you did,” he tells her. “Or something like it. I can only think that you suspect me of slipping back into old habits.”

“That’s not it,” Rey says. “I’m...reflecting. On the changes you’ve made since you showed up here.”

“I see,” Kylo says, hunching slightly over his place at the table. “And do you find me wanting in any particular places?”

“No,” Rey says, after a moment, and finds it to be true. “I do believe you have managed to become the man you were meant to be.”

He straightens at that, staring at her obviously where anyone can see him do it. The look of complete befuddlement almost makes her laugh.

“You’ve only got to get rid of that awful moniker now,” she says, lightly, a weight lifted off her shoulders. She’s been watching him for weeks now, circling closer until she feels she almost knows him well. There is a tension between them, possibly born of Kylo’s inability to see himself as a good man, as Rey has learned he struggles to. As she has accepted his redemption, she has found herself frustrated with his refusal to see his own worth, constantly trying to do more, earn his place here among people who value him not for his bloodline, which is all but useless, but for his service to the realm and his dedication to helping where before he hurt.

“I haven’t been anything but Kylo Ren for many years,” he says, blinking and dropping his gaze to his plate.

“I think you have been more than Kylo Ren for a while now,” Rey says.

-

Faced with the task of evaluating Kylo’s suitability, Rey had entirely forgotten that one of them will have to actually ask the other if they want to get married. She expects to do it herself, and feels no hurry to propose. Rey is enjoying this period of getting to know him, which under any other circumstances would be called courting. As it is, they are simply spending time with each other.

She’s been sending him out less and less often, instead asking him to see to assisting the new guards, Finn among them as Rey predicted. As she has long known, he is a skilled swordsman, if not a particularly gifted teacher. He demands the best out of the men and women under his care and becomes easily frustrated with them as a result. It is perhaps not the best position for him, but Jessika doesn’t seem to mind, even somewhat enjoying her recruits’ trial by fire, and thanking Rey for the given assistance. Jessika, as well as most of the knights, has fallen into treating Kylo as if he belongs to her, and exists for her purposes before anything else. Rey doesn’t find fault in the assumption.

Rey is watching one of his sessions with the guards in training when he sees her at the edge of the field and calls a halt to the lesson. Half of the men and women groan with relief, and he glares at it immediately.

“On second thought, I want you all to spend this time practicing your dancing - yes, in armor,” he snaps when some of the men make noises in protest. “If I had to learn it, so do you. Do you want to be respectable knights or don’t you?”

Rey smiles watching the knights pair up, and Finn catches her eye as she makes her way over.

“Could you do something about him?” he asks, his voice near desperate. “He’s been getting more ornery all week, and there’s a few of us that are about ready to toss him into a lake.”

“I intend to,” Rey tells him. “Try not to drown my intended before he knows he is, hm?”

Finn’s eyes nearly bug out of his head.

“You’re- With him?” he splutters out, ignoring his partner trying to get him to focus. “When did this happen?”

“The Queen suggested him as a potential partner,” Rey says. “And I find that she’s not wrong. He is a good option, and if anyone can keep him under control, I think it’s me. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well, I can’t fault that logic,” Finn grumbles. “Just be sure to let me know if Poe and I ought to organize a mob. I’m sure if we all work together, we could take him.”

“Your offer is appreciated, Finn,” Rey says, smiling wider. “But I think I’ve got this handled.”

Finn shrugs, and finally gives in to his partner prodding him to action and begins practicing one of the more popular dances, looking entirely put upon. From the corner of her eye, Rey can see Kylo frowning in their direction, and she continues over to him.

“May I speak with you?”

“If you’re done distracting my trainees,” he says, a little snotty in the way Rey has come to learn means he’s annoyed but aware it’s for a ridiculous reason.

“I am,” she says. “And they’re not yours, they’re Jessika’s. _You_ are simply assisting, if you remember.”

“Of course.” He lets his arms drop from where they’re crossed over his chest and offers her a more open expression. “Did you need to speak at length, or can we talk here?”

“At length, I think,” she says. He nods and turns to shout a true dismissal to the knights, met with grateful sounds and a mass exodus back to the barracks. She leads Kylo to one of her favorite gardens, knowing the only inhabitants will be the groundskeepers. It’s almost unbearably hot as summer comes to its height, and most of the castle’s inhabitants are unwillingly at work or keeping indoors where it’s marginally cooler.

“I wanted to discuss something with you myself,” Kylo says before Rey can work herself up to the topic she means to discuss.

She nods to encourage him, listening as they wind their way through the garden, taking a leisurely pace but never quite stopping.

“I’ve thought about what you said regarding my name,” he goes on. “And if you think it would be wise, I might be persuaded to use the name Ben again. Though I still think it doesn’t quite suit me, and will take some getting used to.”

At this, Rey does pause on the path. He turns back to face her, having gone a step ahead before noticing her stillness, and Rey cannot stop herself from bringing up a hand to touch briefly at the outside of his elbow.

“You don’t need to change your name,” she says softly. “I know Ben Solo died the day you left, but you don’t have to go back to before to make things right. Kylo Ren is who you are now, and you must move forward. You’ve come too far to start going backward now.”

Kylo is frozen, eyes trained on the place where her fingers brushed his skin, and Rey thinks for a moment she might have shocked him mute and wonders how exactly he’ll react when she announces she intends to marry him. She’ll be doing a lot more than brushing his elbow if he accepts.

He eventually drags his gaze up to her face, a look of confused awe in his eyes. They’re as dark as ever, and just as intense as that first night she’d spoken to him, but warmer now. Where before she had seen him lost, his person is entirely changed in some small way that shifts him just onto a path that Rey knows she can walk with him. The uncertainty and nerves she’d felt before about asking him dissipate like they’ve evaporated in the heat.

“Will you marry me?”

For a second, Rey thinks she’s had an out of body experience, until she realizes he’s the one who has spoken before the words could leave her.

“I’ve spoken with the Queen about it, and she thinks it’s a good idea,” he hurries on, not giving her a chance to respond. “And I know you haven’t found anyone suitable among the nobility, and I thought perhaps we-”

“Yes.” She has to nearly shout it to be heard over his continued speech, but when she does, he shuts up entirely. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Kylo. If you’d given me a moment more, I would have asked you myself.”

“Oh.” He seems to deflate slightly, shoulders dropping from where they’d been nervously huddled up almost around his ears. “Well that’s. Good, then.”

“May I kiss you?” she asks when it seems he has nothing more to say. “I’d like the first time not to be in front of your mother and half the kingdom, if that’s alright with you.”

He doesn’t answer her in words, but with action, ducking down to press his mouth to hers with an urgency she hadn’t expected. His hand comes up lightly against the side of her face, cupping her jaw, and Rey’s eyes shut. It’s entirely gentle, and she can feel his fingers shaking slightly against her skin, and Rey presses forward just for a second before letting herself retreat.

His eyes are still closed when she opens hers, and he heaves a very pleased-sounding breath before opening them to meet her gaze.

“Well,” he says. “That’s good, then.”

Rey laughs at the echo of his previous statement.

“Shall we go tell the Queen?” he says, fingers brushing up and through her hair for a moment. “I expect she’ll need the time to prepare a wedding, and I do not intend to spend my first months as a married man in the freezing cold, so she’d better be swift about it.”

“I don’t know,” Rey says lightly. “I think perhaps winter as a married woman might be nice. I hear you men are good for warming a bed in the cold nights if nothing else.”

Rey has never seen him blush before, and it instantly becomes one of her favorite sights.

“Come along,” she says, tugging at his wrist briefly. “Let’s go tell your mother we’re engaged.”

She walks on, and after a moment, he follows.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A royal wedding, and a wedding night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because time is a thing, I don't think I'll be able to finish it for smut week, but consider this a promise that I'll be doing my best to add a bit of smut to the fics in this series so far in honor of the celebration.

The wedding is, of course, a large affair, with what does seem to be half the kingdom invited or showing up anyway. The press of people in the castle sets Kylo on edge, and Rey spends considerable time soothing her fiancé in the weeks leading up. She also spends a staggering amount of time going in and out of dresses, and then one dress in particular when she and Leia and the troupe of seamstresses finally decide on something they like and set to fine-tuning it. What they’ve been doing with Kylo’s clothing remains a mystery to her, though Rey admittedly doesn’t try very hard to find out.

It had taken nearly five months to organize things satisfactorily, so that Kylo’s prediction has come true and they will be wed just as the season turns to winter. In truth, they might have managed to settle everything else a bit more rapidly, except that Leia has decided she will step down in the year after their marriage, and so there is considerably more paperwork. Though Leia scoffs at the notion, Rey is entirely unsure if she’s ready to become a wife and Queen and possibly even a mother within the space of a year.

Godsends that they are, Finn and Poe spearhead a force to keep Rey’s head from spinning off her shoulders. She can’t exactly prove it’s them, but there’s no one else who would think to make sure she has time to herself in the bustle of everything, and even has time alone with Kylo. Their anxieties reflect off each other in dealing with the particulars of organizing a royal wedding, but in the stolen quiet moments when a well-placed urgent message needs the Queen’s attention or certain guardsmen insist their future sovereigns take a meal, though the rest of the castle will be eating at different times, their excitement is mirrored as well.

Rey has grown familiar with the touch of his hand against hers, as well as the soft smiles and genuine, ungraceful laughter she is able to draw from him. His lengthy dissertations on exactly what he must be careful of with himself and how things might go wrong are less easily pleasing, but she values them nonetheless, the evidence of his care comforting in its own way. They discuss law and trade and intrigue as often as they do literature and favored sweets and places to go riding, and by the time they are a week from the ceremony, Rey is so ready to be married to him, she thinks her chest may burst from it.

The castle is near unrecognizable on the day. The Queen has had the halls bedecked with flowers in shades of gold and red and white, cascades of fabric lining the hall where the ceremony itself is to take place. When Rey sneaks down to the kitchen in the early morning for a moment of peace before the day begins, the place is already mad, filled with a frankly alarming amount of food. The half-starved little girl she used to be would have boggled at the sight. It is comforting to know Leia has extended welcome to any and all who might join them in celebration over the next days, so none of it will go to waste.

She runs into Kylo on her way back up, pastries safely tucked away in a napkin so she can eat in her own rooms. It seems he had a similar idea, dressed down and sneaking through the halls in the direction of the kitchen. Rey can do nothing to stop the spread of her smile at the sight of him, and they move together into a corner where they won’t be interrupted for at least a few moments.

“I hardly slept,” Rey admits quietly when they’re alone.

“Then you’ll make a very sleepy bride,” Kylo teases, his manner loose as always in the morning.

“A very excited bride,” she shoots back. “Do you think we’ll even see each other before the ceremony?”

“Doubtful.” Kylo shrugs, the rustle of his informal shirt catching her attention and holding it. Rey is aware that the man she’s chosen to marry is attractive, but there is something about him today, on this morning, that begs to be touched. It adds a level of anticipation that has her mouth going dry.

“I imagine the Queen has today scheduled to the second,” he goes on. “Which is why she hasn’t told either of us about it, lest we protest in some way.”

“In that case, I’m glad I caught you now.”

They’ve only kissed twice, once when he’d first proposed, and once again when they’d formally announced the engagement, thought that had been a chaste thing, a dry press of lips that could as well have been a handshake. Rey knows she could have snuck a few more between then and now, but the urge to kiss him has never been stronger than in this moment. Here, with her hands full of warm pastry and no one to see them in the shadow of the corner, she rises to her toes and lets her mouth meet his.

His hand comes up to provide her balance as he sways down to meet her, and Rey fancies she can feel every inch of his fingers spread below her shoulder blade. It lasts all of a few seconds, but Rey can feel it trembling through her frame as she lowers to stand properly once more. She can’t imagine Kylo feels much differently, and relishes the heat of his gaze.

She’d like to spend the day with him, but then, she’s growing to realize she’d like to spend any and every day with him. It’s been so long since she looked at him with anything but affection that the memory of disliking him, hating him, even, seems like it belongs to another life, one far away from hers. In this one, she has a mother who loves her, loyal and true friends, the confidence and purpose of her people, and a man who Rey has come to adore. This must be what bliss feels like.

“You’ll have to let me go for a while yet, I’m afraid,” he says, wry. “I have it on good authority you’re expected shortly, and my mother will not be pleased to find you missing.”

Rey would protest, but he’s right. The Queen has taken on the task of perfecting their wedding in the final hours like it is her new meaning in life. It’s rare that the Queen does not have her way, and what she expects out of the day is perfection, god help any soul who stands in the way of it. So Rey reluctantly makes her way back to her room in time for Leia to arrive. Shrewd as she is, Rey suspects Leia knows she’s been about this morning, but she doesn’t bother with accusations when there is a schedule to keep.

And there is a schedule. While Rey had been under the impression her dress was complete and ready to be worn, evidently she was wrong. There are details and bits that must be sewn on while she’s wearing the thing, and so Rey spends the morning being thoroughly washed and dried, then fitted into her dress. Leia herself sets the veil, a precariously constructed work of finely made lace working in concert with a tiara commissioned for the occasion.

“You look beautiful,” Leia tells her when the work is done. Rey thinks she ought to feel heavy, with the yards of embroidered fabric and the tiara and veil weighing on her, but she feels as though she could walk on air instead. The sight of Finn and Poe waiting to escort the Queen and the princess to the designated hall brings her to earth in the most pleasant of ways. It’s all real, and for a moment, Rey can hardly breathe.

She takes Finn’s arm with a shaky breath and lets him lead her to where Kylo waits for her by the doors to the great hall. The creeping urge to cry is burned out of her at the sight of him. In its place is a blazing sort of satisfaction, pride and greed and all the things that ought to be condemned, but she cannot regret feeling them. Dressed in dark colors with the touch of violet as a nod to his status, he is stunning, and he is _hers_. If not yet bound by law, Rey knows it in her bones – this man belongs to her and she to him. There is no space for tears in the wake of the possessive flame blooming inside her.

“Are you ready?” he asks, but she hears _Are you sure?_ Kylo has yet to shake his frustrating humility, and she can see the same disbelieving awe on his face as had been there when she’d agreed to marry him in the first place.

“I can hardly wait,” she says, and puts action to word, leading the way to the doors. They split open within moments, and Rey finds herself staring out at a room full of advisors and friends and strangers, and her hand finds Kylo’s blindly. It is a long walk to the altar, made longer by her impatience. When they arrive, he turns to face her, and they repeat the same words that generations of his family have spoken in this place. The words themselves don’t matter so much as the way he looks at her.

Even through the lace of her veil, Rey cannot keep her eyes off him, and neither can he look away from her. They only break their gaze to find the rings, and then, suddenly, Kylo’s fingers are gently lifting the veil from her face to tuck away so he can kiss her. Ceremonial it may be, but there is nothing formal about the way Rey surges forward into him, clutching at his arms and relishing in the knowledge she is kissing her _husband_ for the first time.

-

There is surely a wonderful time to be had at the feast celebrating their union, but Rey has no interest in it. As is expected, she and Kylo make their appearances, bow to the Queen for her blessing, greet dignitaries, and step out onto the balcony to greet their people as princess and newly minted prince. There are surely many who would protest Kylo’s place as future king, but they are not present at the castle, possibly by design. Instead, Rey waves to a crowd that throws cheers and flower petals up to them, her hand clutching at the inside of his elbow while her smile threatens to split her face.

Still, the demands of their station put Rey on edge and impatient, and she knows Leia at least can tell. Finn and Poe must also know, but they can do nothing to relieve her of her duties, unlike the Queen. By some mercy, she sees fit to do so, and pulls the pair of them aside early in the evening.

“You two ought to be going,” she tells them with a knowing grin that should be uncomfortable and for Kylo, probably is. “There’s bound to be some confusion over sleeping arrangements, I’m sure.”

“Of course,” Kylo puts in smoothly, over Rey’s giddy nodding along. He goes on when they’ve made a beeline out of the room and away from the Queen, “And now I have to consider that my mother knows exactly what we’ll be doing.”

“Everyone knows,” Rey reminds him. “Be thankful it’s no longer tradition to bear witness.”

A dark look crosses his face for the space of a heartbeat at that, leaving behind only heat and want when he speaks. “I fear I would struggle to share even that much, so trust my gratefulness is genuine.”

There is indeed a bit of a production made with getting them to true privacy, however. A gaggle of servants has been directed to clear new chambers rather than adapting Rey’s or Kylo’s, and the new territory doesn’t need explanation, but they are given it anyway. Though Rey had perhaps romanticized thoughts of their wedding night, the reality is that the bedroom is cold until the fire is started, and Rey would struggle to free herself from the confines of her dress, let alone be able to direct Kylo to help her with it. So she takes the assistance in stride, but feels no shame in hustling the ladies out the door when she’s stripped down to a dressing gown.

Kylo is waiting for her when she enters, occupying himself with something on what is now her dressing table, and he looks up sharply at the sound of the door closing behind her. Rey cannot deny she has been all but holding her breath in anticipation, but now that she has him here, alone, it’s as though all thought has fled from her mind. She has no idea what to do with him, only that she wishes there wasn’t quite so much room to cross to get to him.

Bless him, he sets about rectifying that space immediately, crossing the room to her in long strides, and she belatedly meets him, fingers latching onto his untucked shirt while his hands come up to cup her face and hold her for a kiss. It’s deeper than the few they’ve shared before, fairly shouting his intentions, and Rey can feel herself go embarrassingly weak in the legs. It seems an eternity that his lips are on hers, then the novelty of his tongue tracing over her lower lip, making her gasp at the sensation. He presses the advantage, stroking into her mouth, and it’s foreign but soft and it draws a shaky moan from her when he slides the tip of his tongue over the roof of her mouth. She’d never known that bit of her was sensitive at all.

“Shall I take you to bed, Your Highness?” he says, low and intimate, and her title falls from his lips like something to be savored, as though he thinks her worthy of so much more but fits it all into the spare syllables. On any other day, she would be smart with him, perhaps mock the use of her title at all, but held in his hands all she can manage to say is “Please.”

He obeys, as he always does with her commands and requests, leading them to the bed and placing her on it before him. The front of her dressing gown splays open, revealing the lack of any clothing underneath, and Kylo is quick to step in the space provided between her knees. With the height of the bed, she is nearly of a height with him, and it doesn’t take much to meet their mouths once more. She doesn’t tire of it - hardly thinks that possible at all - but there is the promise of more that Rey cannot resist chasing, and so she moves backward, pulling him with her until he is knelt over her, gazing down at where she’s sprawled across their bed.

She thinks there may be a million things hiding behind his lips, from the way his eyes trail over her, reverent and possessive and slightly panicked, but Rey has no patience for watching him struggle to say any of it. Instead, she sits up and presses a kiss to his mouth before she tugs at the hem of his shirt to get him out of it. She’s nothing like a complete innocent, having grown up in the back end of nowhere as a maid for her young life, but this is the first time she’s seen a man without his clothes with any desire to look, and the first time she’s wanted to know what it is that inspired a good many to drop propriety and make fools of themselves in hidden spaces.

He certainly makes her feel like a fool, dizzy and smiling, unsure what she wants, but only that she wants it fiercely, and the remedy seems to be in her skin against his. He brushes the dressing gown from her shoulders, helping free her from it until she is naked before him and he loses some restraint on himself that Rey hadn’t known to wait for. He is all clumsy grace, a contradiction that shouldn’t be, but belies his lack of practice as well as his eagerness. Kylo has proven himself a man of many talents, and Rey suspects it comes from an earnest desire to succeed in all things possible, this being no exception.

The way he touches her, she could lay here forever under his attention. He begins with hands, fingers dancing along her skin as if he means to memorize every dip and rise between her chin and knees. He lingers over her breasts and waist, trails his thumbs in the divot by her hips when her legs come up instinctively as his touch descends. He follows it with his mouth, teasing her to a rosy glow with lips and tongue. She pulls him up from his place when she can take no more of him nipping at her ribs and takes a proper kiss from him.

In the haze of it, she’s nearly forgotten Kylo is still dressed, so that when she works up the courage to boldly reach for him, she is met with the feel of fabric. He laughs at the impatient and affronted face she must make in response, before stripping himself for her. The sight of him fully naked drops a stone into her belly, hot and tense and begging to be seen to, and so she drags him down to her and maneuvers him with hands and legs until he cannot mistake what she wants.

He pauses anyway, and Rey is prepared to nag and yell at him until he shifts so that his hand is between her legs, fingers pushing into her, and she could swear she sees new stars form behind her eyelids.

“ _Oh.”_ It’s a soft, revelatory sound, met with Kylo’s somewhat smug huff of a laugh, but Rey can’t be bothered by his ego if he’ll keep touching her like that. She’s never questioned whether or not women might find as much enjoyment in the act of sex as men do, but it’s evident such a thing is possible, and not so terribly difficult to come by. She is a stranger to her own sex, and so she doesn’t begrudge him the moments of discomfort, especially not in the wake of the moment he finds a small place above where his forefinger slips inside her that brings her arching up.

“Do that again,” she demands, grabbing onto his shoulders, and is never more glad for his willing obedience. He eases her backward as they both explore what he can do to her, his free hand moving to twine her fingers with his so that she can grip onto him instead of her frantic hold on the sheets. She’s more than damp between her legs, the sensation foreign but enhancing the slide of his fingers inside her, two now, and he must do more than this, or there’s a very real possibility she will lose her mind before managing to properly bed her husband.

“Now, please,” she says, pulling at his hand in hers and glad that he doesn’t miss her meaning. Her thumb slips over the gold band around his fourth finger, entranced with the feel of it, as he thrusts into her finally, meeting their hips together. He moans her name, the sound of it almost as good as the feel of him inside her, a pleasant pressure that makes her gasp. The both of them are lost to the motion of their bodies in no time, Rey’s nails dug into the breadth of his shoulders while Kylo clutches at her hips, driving in and out of her. His pace accelerates rapidly, until Rey’s head is tipped back into the plush pillows and luxuriating in the feeling of it with no control.

The sound he makes when he finishes is enough alone to send shivers down Rey’s spine, a low, guttural thing like he’s been wounded, only tempered by the knowledge he’d chased after this moment as much as she had. Kylo stays motionless for a handful of seconds, his arm wrapped around her hips where he’s drawn her flush against him and his open mouth pressed to her shoulder, before he shudders all over and the tension goes out of him. Rey nearly swallows her tongue at the sensation of him leaving her body, though he doesn’t go far.

He falls beside her, short of breath, and in a move she couldn’t have predicted of herself, Rey grabs for his hand and brings it back between her legs. She’s still somehow wanting there, and the press of his fingers back into her makes her sigh. His wrist may suffer from the angle, but Rey keeps a hold on him until everything goes oversensitive, his thumb massaging circles over her while his first two fingers work inside, stilling at the high, weak noise she makes when she reaches what must be her peak.

“Breathe,” he says softly as she blinks through it, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes and her breath is indeed too short. Kylo pulls his hand back, cleaning it on the sheet before he turns her face to kiss her again, and if he meant to calm her, his methods are questionable. Or at least she thinks so until the fading tingles settle at the base of her spine and Rey is left nearly purring into his mouth.

“Married life suits you,” he says, quietly teasing, when Rey reluctantly lets him go. Draped over his bare chest, Rey can’t stop turning his left hand over in hers, watching the firelight glint off his wedding band in liquid flashes.

“A warmed bed suits me, certainly,” she says, relaxed enough to meet his cheek now. “We’ll see about marriage in the morning.”

“I assure you,” he says, lips moving against her hair, “your bed will be warmed come morning as well.”

Rey hums to herself, content beyond words and relishing in the thought that he will be here, her partner in all things, steady and true as always. The long stretch of the future is not so much daunting as exciting with that thought in mind.

  
“I suppose it will suit me just fine then,” she mumbles, sleep chasing her. She has enough time to feel him rearrange the blankets over them before dreams take her, warm and unwilling to move from her position on him. If he takes issue with her sleeping habits or inability to stop touching him, they can discuss it in the morning. Somehow, with Kylo’s arm secure around her, Rey doubts very much that it will be a problem.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Kylo takes Rey's name when they get married, because she is in all ways his queen.


End file.
